Towards a microbial process-based understanding of the resilience of UK peatland systems

泥炭地是英国最大的陆地碳储量，这些系统的碳吸收和释放对气候变化和人类对泥炭地生态系统的影响高度敏感。这项申请旨在确定一系列关键的研究问题，围绕英国旱地泥炭地对气候适应性的贡献，特别是关于恢复和侵蚀景观中碳储存对干旱和洪水的适应性。我们的目标是通过与两个关键的学术团体和泥炭地从业人员的接触来共同产生这些研究问题，并在科学论文的权威状态下对它们进行定义。该项目将汇集一个由泥炭地科学家、微生物学家和泥炭地管理从业者组成的多学科小组。其他关键产出将是确定优先次序的研究计划和利益攸关方指导文件。虽然已经有关于旱地恢复对泥炭地碳动态的影响的工作，但对气候变化、洪水、干旱和泥炭地碳储量之间的联系的过程了解有限，与气候复原力的潜在联系尚不清楚。管理碳储存弹性的过程主要是微生物的，这需要微生物学家与泥炭地科学家和从业人员的成熟社区之间的合作。通过考虑微生物在推动泥炭地碳库恢复能力中的作用，该提案解决了英国气候恢复计划的目标1、知识缺口2和目标2。我们要求GB 45 k定义将微生物多样性和功能与泥炭地碳库恢复能力联系起来的关键研究问题。我们建议开展五项活动：1)召开一系列由英国和国际知名微生物学家、泥炭地科学家和恢复从业者参加的跨学科研讨会，以开发跨学科研究方法，以了解泥炭地对洪水和干旱的反应；2)制定优先研究计划和利益相关者指导文件；3)与泥炭地利益攸关方团体合作，开发泥炭地过程理解的实际应用(例如，使用微生物群落数据作为恢复成功的指标)；4)与模拟英国气候复原力的团体接触，将有关高地和高地过程的数据纳入更广泛的联合王国气候复原力工作；5)综合这些活动的结果，并对文献进行重大审查，以确定科学状况和关键研究问题，以发展对泥炭地在气候复原力中的潜在作用的基于过程的理解。

Peatlands are the largest store of terrestrial carbon in the UK and carbon uptake and release from these systems is highly sensitive to changes in climate and human impacts on the peatland ecosystem. This application will aim to define a series of key research questions around the contribution of UK upland peatlands to climate resilience, particularly with respect to resilience of carbon stores to drought and flood in restored and eroded landscapes. We aim to co-produce these research questions through engagement with two key academic communities and with peatlands practitioners and to define them in an authoritative state of the science paper. The project will bring together a multidisciplinary group of peatlands scientists, microbiologists and peatland management practitioners. Other key outputs will be a Prioritised Research Plan and a Stakeholder Guidance document. While there has been work on the impact of upland restoration on peatland carbon dynamics, the process understanding of the links between climate change, flood, drought and peatland carbon storage is limited, and the potential connection with climate resilience is unclear. The processes governing carbon store resilience are predominantly microbial, requiring collaboration between microbiologists and the well-established communities of peatlands scientists and practitioners. Through considering the role of microbes in driving the resilience of the carbon store in peatlands the proposal addresses objective 1, knowledge gap 2 and objective 2 of the UK Climate Resilience programme.We are requesting £45 k to define the key research questions linking microbial diversity and function to the resilience of the peatland carbon store.We propose five activities:1) convening a series of interdisciplinary workshops of leading UK and international microbiologists, peatland scientists and restoration practitioners to develop interdisciplinary research approaches to understanding peatland response to flood and drought;2) formulating a Prioritised Research Plan and a Stakeholder Guidance document from these workshops;3) work with peatland stakeholder groups to develop practical applications of the process understanding (e.g. use of microbial community data as indicators of restoration success);4) engagement with groups modelling UK climate resilience to incorporate data on uplands and upland processes into wider UK climate resilience work;and5) synthesis of the findings from these activities with a major review of the literature to define the state of the science and key research questions to develop a process based understanding of the potential role of peatlands in climate resilience.